Jones paints flowers with an emotion in mind similar to the Japanese notion of “mono no aware”. This can be described as an awareness of the transience of life, heightening the appreciation of the beauty in “things”, and evoking gentle melancholy at their passing. Jones brings cut flowers to her studio from her flower shop day job, responding to them in paint. This is a process of appreciating all phases of the flowers’ life, painting them until they wilt, and then starting again.
In his catalogue essay for the show, Nicholas Harding says; “Jones takes the lessons learned from her artistic forebears, Matisse, Bonnard and Nolde, and reforges it into her own visual language. There is a succinct affinity with the nature of paint evident in the supple flux of her brushwork.”
Maunsell Wickes Gallery
1 to 14 March, 2013
Sydney
Slipper Orchid, 2012, oil on canvas, 60 x 50cm
Courtesy the artist and Maunsell Wickes Gallery
